Group items tagged

Debra Burkhalter October 15, 2012 Student News Daily Overview: Student News Daily is a fabulous current events site for high school students to become readers of the news. The founders set up the website with a goal to "to build students' knowledge of current events and strengthen their critical thinking skills…in a manageable format." Using the site gives great references and information to students in a very easy to navigate way. Teachers will also be impressed with the format and many links to other useful current events websites. Content: The user of this site is able to identify right away that the content is current events. The site is updated daily. The intended audience is stated clearly under the "About Us" tab: "StudentNewsDaily.com is a non-profit current events website for high school students." The directional tabs are organized and easy to navigate and teachers will also appreciate the easy and manageable format. Student News Daily has six main categories which would be quite useful and could easily be incorporated into weekly current event lesson planning: * Daily News Article * Daily Best of The Web * Tuesday's World Briefs * Wednesday's Biased Item * Thursday's Commentary * Friday's News Quiz In addition to main categories the site also provides other current events items including: editorial cartoons, quick takes and a quote of the week. Design: The homepage downloads efficiently, is easy to read, extremely navigable and updated daily. Directions for use are clear and easy to follow and the content areas are labeled and very well organized. The site incorporates the use of multimedia via weekly videos, daily cartoons and links which makes a huge contribution to the site as an up to date portal for global current events. The design and purpose of the site is to educate and the content presentation which is inclusive of questions and answers makes it very doable for students to learn

Debra Burkhalter October 15, 2012 Teens For Planet Earth Overview: Teens for Planet Earth is a Wildlife Conservation sponsored social networking group for teens, age thirteen years and older. This site was set up to provide outlets for group conservation projects which can be posted on this site. Very much like the Diigo groups, these Teens for Planet Earth (T4PE) groups are specifically formed by and for teens who want to protect the planet. Members from all over the globe can join to learn more about conservation, to join local projects, or even to apply for awards. This site is helpful to find information and many current events related to the environment. Content: The user of this site is able to identify right away that the basic content deals with conservation. The intended audience is stated on the home page, "Teens for Planet Earth is a Social Network by teens, for teens." The directional tabs are organized and easy to navigate. Although the site was developed for teens, there is also an Advisors portal for adults/teachers to: ■Establish regular, consistent contact with your team members. ■Engage team members in constant motivation, reflection, and feedback. ■Manage team dynamics and involve all teens equally in project. ■Know and oversee safety and health issues. Design: The homepage downloads efficiently and is simple but attractive and eye catching. Your eyes are visually drawn and move across silhouetted mountains, over the earth held up by stick figures then settle in a calm fixation on the owl in flight. Directions are clear and easy to follow and the content areas are labeled and organized. The site incorporates the use of multimedia extremely well which makes a huge contribution to the site. Design provides ample availability and links to other useful Web sites.